The present invention relates to a recording-medium position indicating apparatus and a method. The apparatus and method are used for a recording medium having information for positions thereon and main information, both kinds of information being written thereon.
One example of the above-mentioned recording medium is a CD (compact disc) for music. As shown in FIG. 1, such a CD has time information I.sub.T and main music information I.sub.M, the main music information comprising tunes, the time information being information corresponding to position information concerning the main information. The time information indicates for every tune how much time is required for playing the current tune (hereinafter, the term "the current tune" means the tune which the CD player plays currently) between a tune starting position Pts of the current tune and another position in the current tune where a reading head for reading the tune information from the CD is positioned, or the time required for playing the current tune between the position where the reading head is currently positioned and a tune ending position Pte of the current tune. A CD player for such a CD has an elapsed time indicating mode and a remaining time indicating mode. These time indicating modes can be switched by an operator as desired. In the elapsed time indication mode, during playing of the current tune, an time indicator provided to the CD player indicates time required for playing the current tune from the tune starting position Pts of the current tune to the position of the current tune where the reading head is currently positioned. Further, In the remaining time indication mode, during playing of the current tune, the time indicator indicates another time which time is required for playing the current tune from the position of the current tune where the reading head is currently positioned to the tune ending position Pte of the current tune.
When such a CD player is used for business, the remaining time indicating mode is normally used because an operator has to know when the tune ends so as to plan the schedule.
Such a CD player for business use may have an auto cue function which automatically searches for a sound starting position from where sound of a selected tune starts, the function then causing the reading head to pause at the sound starting position of the selected tune. Normally, as shown in FIG. 1, the sound starting position Pss of the tune does not coincide with the above-mentioned tune starting position Pts, that is, there is a non-sound range, between the tune starting position Pts and the sound starting position Pss, in the tune, in which range no sound occurs when the reading head scans for music information.
Searching a tune in the above-mentioned elapsed time indication mode through the above-mentioned auto cue function results in a pausing state of the CD player, where the above-mentioned time indicator indicates an elapsed time such as "00 MINUTES. 03 SECONDS.". This indication means that the elapsed time required for playing between the tune starting position Pts and the position in the tune where the reading head is currently positioned is three seconds. This elapsed time is the above-mentioned non-sound range of the tune. This indication enables the operator to confirm that the selected tune has been found as the result of the search, as the operator is able to verify that only a few seconds have elapsed.
On the other hand, Searching for the tune in the above-mentioned remaining time indication mode through the above-mentioned auto cue function also results in a pausing state of the CD player where the above-mentioned time indicator indicates a remaining time such as "10 MINUTES. 45 SECONDS.", for example. As mentioned above, the remaining time indication mode is normally selected in a CD player for business use. This indication means that the remaining time required for playing between the position in the tune where the reading head is currently positioned and the tune ending position of the tune is 10 minutes and 45 seconds. This indication does not enable the operator to determine whether the current state is the state where the tune has been found as the result of the search, that is, is the state where the reading head is positioned on the sound starting position, or whether the current state is the state where a part of a tune has been already played, that is, the state where the reading head is not positioned on the sound starting position, but rather is positioned near a middle of a tune. This is because the time required for playing a tune varies depending on each tune; thus, unless the operator previously knows the time for playing the entire tune, the operator cannot determine the current state. Further, the operator does not know the time required for the reading head to effect scanning of the non-sound range of the tune.
Switching of the time indicating mode from the remaining time indication mode to the elapsed time indication mode can result in enabling the above-mentioned determination of the state and thus enables the operator to know the time required for the non-sound range. However, such an extra operation as the switching is problematic in business applications. An alternative method for solving the problem may be considered, in which method the CD player has two time indicators respectively indicating the remaining time and the elapsed time. However, the alternative method causes another problem in that the extra time indicator creates a rise in manufacturing cost of the CD player, and in that the extra indicator interferes with reduction in size of the operation panel of CD players. The alternative method causes another problem in that the operator may mistake one time indicator for the other time indicator thus resulting in an erroneous operation by the operator.